China’s state-run Global Times has blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “damaging” the ties between India and China. In an article, Fudan University Centre for South Asian Studies director Zhang Jiadong has said that Prime Minister Modi-led NDA government’s tilt towards the US has resulted in worsening of ties between the neighbours.

The article accused Prime Minister Modi of abandoning India’s principle of non-alignment and ending the tradition of “keeping an equal distance from major powers”. It says that attempts made by the Prime Minister did improve ties, but only in the “short run”.

According to the Global Times, India under Prime Minister Modi is emerging as a “major defence partner” and “major non-NATO ally” of the US. It adds that the developments in this regard “sours the strategic partnership between China and India”.

Claiming that Modi government’s team has been “left with neophytes in foreign affairs”, the article says that the Indian Prime Minister did not include any member of the foreign policy team under the previous UPA government. It added that Prime Minister Modi did not even include those who were part of the team during the tenure of former prime minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who breathed his last in the national capital last week.

The article says that since Narendra Modi came to power in India, the country has been working to cope with the “China threat” and hence indulged in giving a boost to India-US ties.

Pointing that Prime Minister Modi showed a friendly gesture toward China in the beginning of his tenure but the situation worsened during the Doklam stand off, which brought the militaries of the countries

The article further compares Prime Minister Modi to India’s first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who had changed his own policies towards China.

“If Modi’s BJP is still in the lead, he might continue the current policy on China. However, it’s hard for Modi to do so if BJP fails. The potential disputes will emerge again and harm China-India ties,” says the article.